Text-to-3D

textToA11y3D is an interactive Google Colab-based application that allows users to generate 3D models from simple text prompts using OpenAI’s Shap-E model. Designed with accessibility and ease-of-use in mind, this tool features an intuitive interface built with ipywidgets, enabling users to customize generation settings, preview outputs, save prompt histories, and export files in multiple 3D formats.

To set up the application, open the notebook in Google Colab and run each cell in order from top to bottom. The necessary dependencies such as shap-e, Pillow, ipywidgets, and py3Dmol will install automatically. Once initialized, the interface will present users with input fields for a text prompt, sliders to control guidance strength, the number of Karras steps, and batch size, and a dropdown to choose the desired file output format (.obj or .ply).

Using the tool is straightforward. Enter a description such as “a robot holding a flower” into the prompt box. You can then adjust the sliders to fine-tune how closely the model adheres to the prompt (guidance), how detailed the rendering process is (Karras steps), and how many samples to generate in one batch. After setting your parameters, you can click “Preview” to generate a 2D image of the 3D model, or “Generate” to render and download the full 3D file. For .obj files, an embedded viewer powered by py3Dmol will provide a real-time mesh preview within the notebook.

The application also keeps track of all prompts you’ve entered. Each time you generate a new model, that prompt along with its settings is saved in a history dropdown. Selecting a past prompt from this list will automatically repopulate the input fields with your original configuration, allowing you to regenerate or refine your results without starting from scratch. If needed, you can clear your prompt history with a single button click, resetting the tool to its default state.

The generated files are stored locally in the Colab environment: image previews are saved in a static/ folder as .png files, while full 3D meshes are saved in an output/ folder with the selected file extension. Although .ply files are fully supported for download, they cannot currently be previewed within the notebook. .obj files can be viewed directly in Colab using the built-in mesh viewer. For the best experience viewing the downloaded models on your machine, tools like Blender or MeshLab are recommended, as Xcode may not render the models properly.

This tool is ideal for artists, educators, researchers, and developers who want to explore text-to-3D generation quickly and interactively. Future improvements could include support for .glb or .stl formats, more advanced preview options, and the ability to persist prompt history across sessions by linking with Google Drive.

If you want to see the GitHub repository click here.